Posts Tagged fantasia

With a week between me and the official end of the Fantasia International Film Festival it’s time to look back on the films that didn’t get a full review from me but that I enjoyed nonetheless… ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

Just 24 hours ago I was delighted to be at the Canadian Premiere of The Endless, the 3rd film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who back in 2012 endeared themselves to us greatly with Resolution. Hype was at extraordinary levels for The Endless, and I am ecstatic to report that this film both builds upon and actually improves their earlier work. The Endless tells the story of two young UFO death cult survivors who struggle to retain their identities in the modern world and are brought back into the darkness of their past by a mysterious recording. The duo are forced to plumb Lovecraftian depths.

There was a point halfway through The Endless, where some built up tension was dissipated and I was forced to consider for the first time: what kind of movie is this? I was reminded of Resolution‘s schizophrenic nature: heartfelt and touching while self aware, with horror and human drama blended without losing their identities. In both these films Benson and Moorhead juggle genres. This movie weaves mostly successfully between character drama, psychological horror and then otherworldly horror in a way that mirrors and darkens Resolution. Astonishing, in a way.

This is heady stuff for a low budget backyard film, but by playing it straight and by taking the subject and the audience seriously they retain some gravity in what might have become comedic horror. High concept sci-fi/horror also tends towards an inherent danger of overexposition but this is mostly avoided. Ultimately it’s Lovecraftian in a modernized In The Mouth of Madness or maybe The Ring sort of way, part of a new wave of horror which merge technological and supernatural elements.

This is the magic sauce, the ambitious, earnest filmmaking that shows that low budget indie films can still be effective, thoughtful films. I’m thrilled for Benson and Moorhead and eager for what comes next. Catch Resolution first, if you can.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but one of things I love about the Fantasia International Film Festival is that it provides me easy (albeit brief) access to “heartwarming Asian movies” I wouldn’t have a chance to hear about otherwise. This year, my craving was fulfilled—and then some—by Split, directed by Choi Kook-Hee. The plot was a comfortable-yet-still-surprising mashup of every underdog sports movie ever, About a Boy and Rain Man, enhanced by its lush colour palette and killer bowling shots. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

I am still shaking from the world premiere of Friendly Beast at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Friendly Beast is a claustrophobic high-tension reverse home invasion set in the pretense laden restaurant of a small minded Brazilian. It starts as a dull night with a subdued cast: the petty owner, the flamboyant chef, the drunken late night clientele, and ends steeped in rage and sex fueled blood. Friendly Beast approaches the greats of the extreme high tension sub-genre of thrillers, almost like Don’t Breathe and maybe even Haute Tension.

Inacio (Murilo Benicio) is the owner of a small restaurant. He’s badgered by his wife on the phone, he bullies his staff, he talks to himself in the mirror, practicing what he will say as he plots to take credit for dishes from his star chef. Meanwhile, his staff plan to walk out on the petty tyrant as he forces them to stay late to accommodate drunken and boorish clients. The waitress Sara (Luciana Paes) is all too eager to do what he says, stays after hours despite her exhaustion, and waits on his every order. Is it attraction? Is she merely kissing his ass? As the head chef Djair (Irandhir Santos) supports a walk-out of the kitchen staff, the tension building between these characters is almost at a breaking point. As the already lush, character-driven tensions peak, the invasion part of the film starts. I desperately want to explain just how far the depths of these characters’ limits will be tested, but anything I say would be a pale shadow beside the eruption of violence and lust on screen.

The film doesn’t fully embrace the gore. Where other such thrillers would devolve into pure blood soaked mayhem, the development of the characters in the first act allows a touch of restraint in the third to remain compelling. Without the utterly potent performances by Benicio, Santos and especially Paes, this restraint would feel like a cop-out, but fortunately the characters get the space to breathe. I expected more gore, and in the theater I was ever so slightly disappointed, but reflecting on it now I prefer the character development.

Gabriela Amaral Almeida directs an intimate relationship between viewer and characters, each one is given freedom to explore their own animal intensity. I must stop: I feel like if I had another few days to mull this over I could give a more nuanced review, but I can’t and I won’t because there is another showing tomorrow (if you’re reading this, today (July 26th)) and so I write this in the desperate hope that at least one of you will get out there. If you are a fan of thrillers: get thee to de Seve, and if you’re squeamish maybe give it a pass. This isn’t for the faint of heart, and I can’t wait to hear what fans of extreme thrill cinema have to say about this.

I can’t say that I 100% knew what I was getting into when I decided to watch Gintama [2017] at Sunday’s sold-out showing at the Fantasia International Film Festival. I will admit that I did not actually know it was an anime adaptation—though I did have my suspicions when a pair of cosplayers showed up. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

November is a phantasmagorical fairy-tale from ninteenth-century Estonia which just had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Only superficially this is a love story: Liina (Rea Lest) pines for Hans (Jorgen Liik) who has eyes only for the baron’s daughter. What it really is, though, is a whirlwind dance through Estonian folklore including kraat (like a golem made of farm implements), werewolves, witches, love potions, and the Devil himself.

Did I say whirlwind dance? Forget that, it’s a compelled stomp to a dirge played by the Devil. The tone of every one of those happy folk stories is steeped in self-depreciating black-comedy helplessness. The kraat are mostly useless and require the exchange of your immortal soul to animate. The love potion is made of shit, sweat and armpit hair, and the plague arrives personified as a beautiful girl with the kiss of death. The village is populated with a motley assortment of peasants, the bulk of whom are eager to betray each other for a mouthful of bread. Eastern European history lends itself to a very special kind of bleakness, and while Estonia is technically North-Eastern Europe the same themes resonate here too. There’s misery behind every stone.

Lest gives a nuanced performance. She negotiates a perilous landscape sarcastically fending off the advances of the older man her father is trying to marry her to, craftily negotiates with the witch wise-woman of the village for help, but also is lost in front of the power of her love for Hans. She’s the beating heart of the film and her on-screen presence is a delight. This is crucial, as everything around her is mud-stained black-and-white darkness.

The film does divert into art house visuals, and the pacing is occasionally slow enough that it might resist the casual viewer, but these things should not deter you. It’s haunting, funny, oppressively dark and a delight. Think The Witch written by Tom Waits and directed by Terry Gilliam. I don’t know how I could better sell this one, I loved it.

It fucking delivered. If you`ve read my reviews in the past, you know I am a sucker for old fashioned kung fu action, or just good old 80s cheese. This has both in spades.

I was sort of expecting this to be fun yet tedious, kind of a near home run. Not quite enough to want to watch it again. I was so wrong. I am for real sad I can`t go see this again.

Enough gushing, here is why you should see this movie;

I learned in the Q&A that the lead actors in this film are all in the spotlight for the first time. No joke, they are all successful stuntmen, who`s enthusiasm for their work spawned this fun ride. Side note here for a serious shout out to Can Aydin for the fight choreography. Some insanely fast paced and impressive combat scenes, none of them cheated with fancy editing. This was a physical orchestra with an inspired conductor. Well fucking done.

Poor Agnes is a tight little thriller hot off the world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival. A pounding drum of relentless serial killing, Agnes (Lora Burke) captures her latest victim Mike (Robert Notman) and chains him in the basement assuring him of his impending doom. The doom doesn’t come, and both we and Mike are surprised as something about him answers an unspoken question in her life. Does she care? Is she truly ruthless or is she waiting for an audience? Director Navin Ramaswaran will keep you guessing until the end.

Morality becomes even more muddled as Mike slides down the slope from prisoner, to unwilling accomplice, to willing slave. Agnes weaves sexual gratification into the torture she inflicts (or forces him to inflict upon himself) on Mike, seeming to finally capture him fully. When she drags Chris (Will Conlon) into her web, partly to satisfy her own murderous/sexual desires but also as a test for Mike he protests “I’m not like you”. Methinks the boy doth protest too much.

The frenetic pace of the first act doesn’t give us time to dwell upon Mike’s descent. Halfway through, I found myself wondering who I was supposed to be rooting for, as time and time again Mike recoils from opportunities to escape. A bit of restraint to Agnes’ madness might have allowed us to sympathize or at least to understand how she could find some connection with sniveling Mike. A poignant moment comes as Agnes and Mike explore the desolate junked cars populating her remote compound. Remnants of her dead father’s abandoned projects help bring a touch of depth to the character.

Poor Agnes is exactly what I go to Fantasia for. Home grown (shot in Thunder Bay!) horror, bold and relentless villains and murky moral waters. Burke has elevated the crazy eyes look to an art form in and of itself and the relationship between Mike and Agnes will keep you guessing. Not for the faint of heart, but a week into the festival what else could you ask for?

Whispers at the Q&A indicate that a distribution deal is in the works, so keep an eye open on the likely channels for this one.

Breaking my unspoken rule about seeing films I can watch elsewhere, I went to The Little Hours [2017] – John Baena. Its offbeat, profane humour was an entertaining addition to the Fantasia International Film Festival.

I had the fortune to be present at the Fantasia International Film Festival’s world premiere of Mohawk, a bloody historical grindhouse revenge tale set in brutal War of 1812 and played to the tune of slasher revenge flicks of old. The Mohawk nation sits in a precarious political position sandwiched between the colliding British and American empires, and a ragtag trio attempts to warn them: the Americans will never respect the treaties they’ve made and will only bring ruin. This rich storytelling soil is hardly sown, however, and the focus of the film almost immediately becomes a caricature laden band of American soldiers hunting down (in the most savage fashions possible) a ragtag trio.

Mohawk stomps through some delicate moral territory. One of the protagonists is responsible for a massacre in order to spur the Mohawk nation into action. This prompts a retaliatory hunt by American soldiers, whose moral high ground evaporates as they torture in order to lure back their escaping prey. In the progress of this lure, a younger member of the Americans is killed, and revealed to be the son of their wildly racist leader. He strips naked to shed tears for the loss of his son.

Deeper characterizations never save the Americans from being anything other than caricature villains. There are some standout performances here, by the WWF’s Jon Huber (some genuinely funny moments) and especially from Ezra Buzzington whose dialed-up-to-11 supervillainy begins as comic but ends as memorably, remorselessly malicious. His performance gives the inevitable final showdown the weight it needs.

The outdoor shots look fantastic. As the hunters and hunted get lost in the deep woods of the northeast the land itself becomes a kind of unmentioned menace, where exhaustion and hunger and mosquitoes are a kind of 3rd player in the hunt. The camera at least loves the outdoors.

But forget about all that. This is not a thoughtful piece about the politics of racist colonial early America. This is a dirty, bloody, self-aware revenge tale. It’s at its best when it shows that it knows it. Viewers not excited for gruesome kill shots, torture scenes and jovial evil had best look elsewhere. For those of us who are, though, what a treat!